The fight to end violence against women is both historic and universal. Historic, because gender inequality, which lies at the root of this violence, has been embedded in human history for centuries and the movement to end it challenges history, custom and, most critically, the status quo. Universal, because no society is an exception to the fact that violence against women is perpetrated through social and cultural norms that reinforce male-dominated power structures. The struggle is nothing less than a demand for full human rights to be unconditionally extended to all people everywhere.Those engaged in this struggle recognize that despite important advances that have laid the foundation for universal human rights, the work has only just begun. In October 2004, on the 25th anniversary of the landmark Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the committee monitoring international implementation stated, “In no country in the world has women’s full de jure and de facto equality been achieved.”

In most countries, in fact, the reality remains bleak. Discriminatory social norms and practices continue to impede women’s full enjoyment of their human rights. Insufficient political will, the extensive under representation of women in decision-making positions and a lack of resources to address the issue are further impediments to progress.

Asserting human rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted without dissent by the United Nations in 1948, recognizes the “equal and inalienable rights” of all people, “without distinction of any kind.” Violence against women contravenes a number of the fundamental human rights laid out in this Declaration such as the right to security of person; the right not to be held in slavery or subjected to inhuman treatment; the right to equal protection before the law; and the right to equality in marriage. Nevertheless, states sometimes deploy the argument of cultural relativism to defend practices that abuse women. According to the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, “The universal standards of human rights are often denied full operation when it comes to the rights of women.”

This book highlights through written description and visual representation many of the persistent expressions of gender-based violence. The testimonies of women and girls emphasise that there is no room for complacency or a false sense of rapid progress in the fight against inequality. To the countless women still suffering today, any positive changes that have been achieved must bear little relevance to their immediate reality. Nevertheless, remarkable developments have taken place in recent years, due in large part to the commitment of a few to change the behavior of many. In the face of formidable forces maintaining the patriarchal systems that give rise to both discrimination and violence against women, there is evidence that the tide may be turning.

Not surprisingly, Japan is a major Asian producer of child pornography. Around the world, there are strong links between child prostitution, child-sex tourism and the production of child pornography.

Girls and boys of all ages, including infants, are sexually exploited in pornographic imagery. Both “a crime in and of itself, and … a picture of a crime scene,” child pornography stretches back centuries. In the last 30 years, however, it has become a thriving enterprise, with images that are more hardcore than before and increased access to those images via the Internet.

Most pedophiles do not use child pornography to turn a profit. They are more likely to stockpile pictures and films that they can copy and trade, thereby adding to their private collection. Nevertheless, the advent of modern home video and personal computer technology has made child pornography easier to produce and trade without detection. As a result, underground distribution has become more organized and commercialized. In the United States alone, the estimated revenues of the child pornography market are approximately $2 billion to $3 billion per year, making it one of the country’s most lucrative cottage industries. Russia is notable as an emerging market, second only to the United States as a source for child pornography.

In modern times, no region in the world is exempt from the production of child pornography. During the industry’s early days, most images were of Western children, many from the United States, whose pictures were commercially reproduced in Europe. A minority of other images were from India, Mexico and Africa. With the growth in sex tourism, images of Asian and Eastern European children were added to the global stock and trade in child pornography, as sex tourists filmed and then distributed their encounters with children. Latin American children also have been exploited on film by both international and local pedophiles and child abusers. In Brazil, street children in particular have been targeted for pornography that is exported to North America.

Many victims of child pornography are boys. In the United States, over 50 percent of child pornography seized in raids depicts boys, and in Canada that figure is 75 percent. In Japan, however, girls are captured in the majority of images. For both boys and girls, their exploitation on film can have a lasting psychological impact. Because of an almost inexhaustible shelf-life, pornographic images can continue to be reproduced and shared, such that “long after the child has grown up, he or she knows that someone, somewhere, may be looking at their picture, witnessing their degradation and distress.” This has perhaps never been more true than in the age of the Internet.

Evidence suggests that a significant number of consumers of child pornography are likely to be active child abusers. The Internet facilitates this link, because it “not only acts as a mechanism for making, displaying, trading, and distributing child porn, it also acts as a vehicle for child pornographers to make contact with and ensnare new victims.” Child sex abusers can enter Internet chat rooms where children congregate, gain their trust and either solicit pictures of them online or arrange to meet them – sometimes traveling across continents – for the purpose of sexually abusing them. One study from the United States found that one in five children who go online regularly is approached by Internet strangers for sex.

Moreover, the Internet allows pedophiles and child abusers to receive positive reinforcement in a way that can legitimize and normalize their criminal behaviors. According to one convicted pedophile, “The Internet is great. It’s a whole world that sucks you in. With 24 hours of first going on I’d found child porn … I found people I could talk to. People who felt like me … I never had so many friends.”